The cheek I had actually had a seemingly higher meat to fat ratio that you'd probably expect to get, although it was still over 50% fat. Which is a good thing. It was firm but not hard, and upon slicing you could see the fat glisten and shine, surrounding the layer of meat running through the middle. Frying turns it almost completely translucent for a while before browning and crisping up, whilst remaining soft inside where the fat will burst out when eaten. And the flavour is richer and more intense than say, a cured pork belly, almost headily.
As I mentioned in the curing post, I discovered guanciale in Jacob Kenedy's The Geometry of Pasta in a recipe for Bucatini Carbonara. I rarely make carbonara, it's the sort of dish where all the ingredients really have to be good quality, and subsequently if they aren't it can be not much cop. There's not much room for alchemy where mixing crap eggs and grated crap cheese is concerned. Besides, there's usually other things I'm more keen on making. Anyway, in this instance the meat was home cured, the cheese was an excellent slab of pecorino which wasn't too over powering, the pasta homemade. The eggs used for the sauce were the same deep-coloured yolk variety I always use for pasta, which gave an even more intense colour to the final dish. But I was always planning on making this with my guanciale - things like pancetta are often used to bulk up flavour in dishes, rather than stand out themselves. Having spent the best part of two months curing there was no way I was just going to hide it away in something else. Especially as what I did cure wasn't actually that much. You'll find all manner of carbonara recipes everywhere, far too many of which will say to use cream. This one is as basic as it needs to be.
1 guanciale
1 quantity fresh spaghetti (same recipe as always)
2 whole, large free range eggs
2 large free range egg yolks
100g pecorino, grated (from a block, not pre-grated)
lots of ground black pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
Make the pasta in advance and set aside. Set a large pan of well salted water boiling (around 4 litres per 250g of pasta). If you're using fresh pasta it will take literally no more than two minutes to cook, dried will take around ten minutes or so, so if you're using dried, get that on first.
Whisk together the eggs and yolks with the grated pecorino and more than enough ground black pepper. If you think you've added enough pepper, add some more. If it looks a bit too thick, loosen it with a tablespoonful or so of the pasta water.
Heat the oil in a frying pan. Slice the guanciale into sticks, about 5mm thick. Add to the pan and fry until browned. Take off the heat.
Drain the pasta and add to the guanciale pan, tossing to coat it in the pork fat. Add the eggs and cheese mixture and stir it in quickly to fully coat the pasta but without cooking the eggs. Serve with more grated pecorino and more black pepper.
I didn't make quite enough cheese and egg mixture to sufficiently coat all the pasta - it was all coated, just that some were more like they'd been brushed with it, rather than thickly covered. But the pasta was very good, as it needs to be. If I was being anal (which, to be fair isn't something rarely leveled at me) I think it would be much better with rounded spaghetti, rather than the sort of squared-off sort that my (and I suspect most) pasta machine attachments make. Minor details. It tasted damn good.
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